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Learn How To Transfer Computer To Computer

There are many ways to move files from one computer to another. You can connect to another computer over a traditional network, you can use programs like Dropbox to move files over the Internet, or you can directly attach two computers with a cable. The last approach is normally used when a user wants to move data from one machine to another prior to getting rid of one of the computers.

There are a couple of computer to computer cableoptions to do this.

Computer To Computer Transfer Methods

Belkin Easy Transfer Cable – The Belkin USB cable is a cable that has a type A connector on either end so it can be directly attached to a PC via a USB port. The Belkin Easy Transfer Cable comes with a CD that installs software to make the transfer of files from one computer to another easy. This is by far the best way to do it, as Windows 7 has revamped the way they handle the Easy Transfer process.

The Belkin Easy Transfer cable comes with PCsync software that syncronizes software from one computer to another. If you are not familiar with networking, or if you do not want to spend a lot of time burning CDs or copying data from a USB stick from one computer to another computer, then this cable is for you.

Besides, you will invariably miss a file, whereas with the Belkin software or the Windows 7 Easy Transfer Wizard, you can move the entire user folder quite easily.

Crossover Cable Method – You can also use a crossover cable to create an ad-hoc network between your computers. This computer to computer cable will require some networking knowledge, as you will need to name the computers and set static IP addresses for both computers. To create an ad-hoc network using a crossover cable, use the following method on both computers:

Right-click Computer (or My Computer) and select Computer Name.

Write down the name.

Go to the Control Panel and double-click the Network Connections icon.

Right-click Local Area Connection and click Properties.

Highlight the TCP/IP connection, right-click and select Properties.

Under the General tab, select Use The Following IP Address and put in 192.168.0.100 for the IP address and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask on one machine and 192.168.0.101 for the second computer.

Create a shared folder on each machine (like My Documents) by right-clicking the folder and selecting sharing.

Lastly, on each computer, go to Start>Run and type //nameofcomputer (the name you wrote down in step 2 above). This should bring up the shared folders for each computer, through which you can transfer files.

Use a backup program like Carbonite (subscription required) and download those backups onto the new computer once you install Carbonite.

The preferred method out of all of those above is the Belkin Easy Transfer cable. It’s cheap, you can use it again and it is easy to setup. It is a great computer to computer cable for moving a lot of files quickly from one PC to another, without a lot of hassle.